Online Glitches Plagued One-Third Of Holiday ShoppersOnline Glitches Plagued One-Third Of Holiday Shoppers

During the slow holiday shopping season, 36% of people who shopped online encountered obstacles as they tried to buy gifts, according to a report released Monday.

The e-commerce development company Guidance said that problems included slow Web site responses, failures during checkout, and complete system crashes. The survey, undertaken by Guidance and Synovate, showed that 64% of shoppers bought items without incident, but 37% of those interviewed said they did not shop online.

A small percentage of the 1,000 online consumers who responded to the survey said they did not shop online during the holidays because of problems in the past. Among those reporting problems in 2008, 13% said they had to exit a slow Web site while trying to shop. Eight percent said a Web site froze or crashed, and 7% said they could not buy an item on the first try. Six percent said they tried to access a site that was temporarily down. Four percent said the purchase of one item they thought that they had bought had not actually gone through.

"While online shoppers may have escaped the ferocious winter weather, a significant number didn't elude the issues that tend to afflict overburdened, underengineered e-commerce sites," Jason Meugniot, Guidance CEO and owner, said in a statement. "Ideally, every shopping cart that is not abandoned by the shopper should be converted -- and every one that doesn't sends a message to the consumer."

Meugniot said that online shoppers did benefit from discounts, free shipping, and friendly return policies.

Women were more likely (44%) to report buying items online without problems than men (36%). The youngest and oldest online shoppers reported more problems than those in the midrange. Thirty-five percent of shoppers over 65 and those between the ages of 18 and 24 reported incident-free experiences, compared with 40% in the overall sample. Nearly half of those in the groups who suffered more problems said they did not shop online at all during the 2008 holiday season. That compares with just 25% of respondents between 35 and 44 who avoided online shopping.

Forty-six percent of respondents earning above $75,000 reported problem-free shopping, compared with just 27.5% of respondents earning less than $25,000.